E-references

Elearning (capitalized) is WMU's online learning system. The generic term e-learning is hyphenated and not capitalized.

email—no hyphen, not capitalized. Similar terms such as e-book and e-commerce are hyphenated.

email addresses—Use all lowercase for email addresses and use official wmich.edu individual and office email addresses for all University communication.

GoWMU (exactly as shown)—WMU's secure intranet portal. Do not refer to GoWMU as "the portal" or "GoWMU portal." Use GoWMU.

home page—Internet term referring to the main page of a website. Two words, not capitalized.

internet—Not capitalized.

intranet—A communication network within an organization or group. Not capitalized. There are hundreds of intranets at WMU, but there is only one worldwide Internet.

login, logon, logout, logoff—As a noun or adjective: one word, no hyphen, not capitalized. Example: Enter your login information. As a verb: two words, no hyphen, not capitalized. Example: Log in to the portal. If you use login, use logout; if you use logon, use logoff.

offline, online—One word, no hyphen, not capitalized.

PDF—Abbreviation for portable display format. Write "It is available as a PDF file," not "It is available as a PDF."

URL—Abbreviation for uniform resource locator (also universal resource locator), a web address. "Web address" is preferred over URL in all University communication. See web addresses.

web—When referring to the World Wide Web, web is not capitalized.

web addresses—Also known as URLs. "Web address" is preferred over URL in all University communication. The prefix http:// should not be included when listing a web address in a correspondence, publication or other printed material, and for pages at www.wmich.edu, do not include www. In print and spoken communication use wmich.edu, not http://www.wmich.edu or www.wmich.edu.

webpage—One word, not capitalized, no hyphen.

website—One word, not capitalized.

webcam—One word, not capitalized.

Wi-Fi (not Wifi or WiFi).

Hints for listing Web addresses

Avoid publishing web addresses of temporary pages. In general, it is best if you can link to the information from your office’s or department’s home page and offer the home page web address for more information. This helps brand the home page.

Use common English words when creating web addresses.Example: wmich.edu/business/conference

Do not publish web addresses for PDF files. Publish the web address for a page on which the audience can find a link to the PDF file.